b'The Australian continent: A geophysical synthesisFeatureand New Guinea, and the Himalaya (transmitted throughwith magnitude M w> 6 have been recorded in Australia. the Indian and Capricorn plates). South of latitude 30S,The recurrence times for larger earthquakes, such as the the stress trajectories in the Australian continent are1988 Tennant Creek sequence with three M w6+ events in 12 oriented eastwest to northwestsoutheast. North of 30S,hours, is more than 10 000 years, so that the brief snapshot the stress trajectories are closer to the present day plateof seismicity available will certainly be incomplete. Many motion, with an orientation between east- northeastwest- neotectonic features have been recognised through careful southwest and northeastsouthwest (see, e.g., Hillis andmapping across the continent (Clark et al. 2011). In the Mller 2003). Flinders Ranges in South Australia, there are clear indications The complex pattern of stress in the continent is expressedof active faults thrusting Precambrian basement over in a relative high level of seismicity for what would normallyQuaternary gravels (Quigley et al. 2010). The active intraplate be regarded as a stable intraplate continental region. Thedeformation in Australia is likely to be guided by structures distribution of the larger events, which have reached nearlygenerated by past tectonic activity and thermal weakening M w7 in recent years, is not uniformly distributed acrossof the lithosphere.Australia. Earthquakes are clustered into regions towards the edges of major structural blocks. The rate of occurrenceGeological settingof earthquakes is normally low, but is punctuated by periods of enhanced seismic activity associated with oneRocks exposed at the surface in Australia span much of the or more large earthquakes. Since 1901, 18 earthquakesEarths geological history (Figure 3). The Archean regions Figure 3.Key to marked features: AF, AlbanyFraser Orogen; AFB, Adelaide Fold Belt; Am, Amadeus Basin; Ar, Arunta Province; Bo, Bowen Basin; Ca, Canning Basin; Cp, Capricorn Orogen; Cu, Curnamona Craton; De, Delamarian Orogen; Er, Eromanga Basin; Eu, Eucla Basin; Ga, Gawler Craton; Ge, Georgetown Inlier; Ha, Hamersley Basin; HC, Halls Creek Belt; Ki, Kimberley Block; La, Lachlan Orogen; Mc, MacArthur Basin; MI, Mt Isa Province; Mu, Musgrave Province; NE, New England Orogen; Of, Officer Basin; Pc, Pine Creek Inlier; Pi, Pilbara Craton; Pj, Pinjarra Orogen; T, Tennant Creek Inlier; Tp, Thomson Orogen; Yi, Yilgarn Craton.APRIL 2019 PREVIEW 42'